Monday, July 15, 2013

Goodbye Telegram

“तार इस मतलब का आया है मुझे भोपाल से

रात भर भैंसे की दुमहिलती रही
भूचाल से .........”

This
wasa frivolous piece of poetryquoted bya very well knownHindi author in
one of his books , which shows howsendingTaaror telegram was in voguein matters important and mundane alikesome decades back.

From today, i.e. 15th July, 2013 it is good byeto Telegrams , as theGovt . in their wisdom
have discontinuedthis - one time very important, but now renderedobsolete as also commercially nonviable – service thanks to other cheaper
andquicker means of instant
communication and transmission like
mobile phones and internet etc. There is hardly person , who has grown
up with me through the fifties , and has notfelt the importance of telegramsin day to day life. Little wonder that the
last day of this service sawa sizable number of peopleat many places rushing to the post offices and telegraph offices to send welfare messagesto relatives and near and dear ones , not only toavail the servicefor the last time but alsoto be able to keep the specimen of a
telegramas a memento or animportant relic of the past for the posterity. Some peoplewere also seen taking alongtheir kidsto showand apprise them of the
systemof sending telegrams.

Telegram has been rightly called
the harbingerof both good and badnews , mostly- I am afraid- bad news . The
mere arrival of amessenger or the
delivery man wouldcause goose bumps in
everyone in the neighbourhood ; it is
another matterthat sometimes the
telegram carried good news of a birth in
the family or in relation , a promotion, an appointment to a service of one of
the relatives, and last but not the
leastsafe arrival of a dear oneat the destination after a long journey. I have seenpeople rushing to an English knowingperson to read out the telegram when education
was not so common.

It is also true thatsometimes loud cries and wails were heard when the telegram carriedsad
and shocking news of anaccident or a
death . Once I hadto rush to thepost office to send a congratulatory Greeting message to an acquaintance who was getting married, leaving aside my personal bereavement. Telegram also
came handywhen due to some unavoidable and
compelling reasons, extension of leave was sought by sending atelegram . However one had to keepthe receiptsafein
tokenof having sent it – ताकिसनद रहे औरबरवक़्त ज़रूरत काम
आवे !